Age of Delirium: The Decline and Fall of the Soviet Union

“This book is intended to be a collective chronicle of the last fifteen years of the Soviet Union, a period during which the Soviet system began to rot and finally collapsed. [...]Although the Soviet Union is now fading into the mists of history, the Soviet experiment in total domination still needs to be understood. The Soviet Union was the product of a purely modern form of megalomania, the notion that human affairs can be ordered without the help of transcendent rules. This book can be taken as a record of the consequences of the application of this notion, as well as a description of human experience under extreme social conditions. In the latter respect, it has special relevance for people in the United States because, as their experiences demonstrate, Soviet people are not as far from us as we might hope.”—“Preface”

CONTENTS

PREFACEINTRODUCTIONPROLOGUE1. THE COUP2. THE IDEOLOGY3. GORBACHEV AND THE PARTY4. TRUTH SEEKERS5. THE WORKERS6. THE ECONOMY7. THE BORDER8. THE KGB9. INTERNAL POLICY10. GLASNOST11. HOMO SOVIETICUS12. THE ROOTS OF FANATICISM13. UKRAINE14. RELIGIONEPILOGUEAFTERWORDACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Ordering

St. Methodia of Kimolos: Remarkable Ascetic, Teacher of Virtue, Counselor, Comforter and Healer (1865-1908). An account of her Life, Character, Miracles and Influence, together with Selected Hymns from the Akolouthia in honor of her, and a Letter to her sister Anna.